I don't know where to begin.
All of these motions by the defense are all so painfully ludicrous, with the exception of the change of venue, which was to be expected - thats pretty much criminal law/capital crime 101. But changes of venue rarely ever get granted. Suffice to say, that a flurry of motions does not begin the describe what was filed today in New Haven Superior Court, as you can discern for yourselves from the links to the actual motions listed at the bottom of this post.
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The motions, most of which were either ridiculous or outright outrageous, were filed by none other than self admitted pedophile and rapist, Joshua Komisarjevsky, via his ethically defunct tax- paid mouthpiece, Jeremiah Donovan.
Donovan, a public defender whose name you might be familiar with, for recently being hauled before a Judge for a contempt hearing to determine whether he should be thus charged for of all things, violating a gag order that was placed upon the Petit murder cases several months after they occurred in July 2007. The contempt charge originated from a reprehensible stunt that Donovan pulled, calling an impromptu press conference on the courthouse steps of the Steven Hayes murder trial, his clients accomplice who was tried separately when it was clear they had adversarial defenses.
This mini press conference that attorney Donovan easily cultivated at a time when the courthouse was literally swarming with TV cameras and all kinds of media big-wigs, guaranteeing it's broadcast in the evening news.
This was clearly the motivation, despite Donovan's fluctuating claims regarding why he did such an unprofessional-- and lets face it-sleazy maneuver.
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Donovan decided that the Hayes trial media gathering would be a perfect opportunity for him to address some very damning testimony against his client Joshua komisarjevsky, that had just been revealed that very day in court. The highly disturbing evidence was revealed within the testimony of the lead pathologist who was being questioned for a long period of time regarding the autopsies of the victims, Jennifer Hayley and Michaela Petit.
The sensitive testimony involved forensic evidence found proving the sexual assault of a minor, Michaela Petit, which is one of the main reason that television cameras were not allowed inside of the courtroom.
Anytime there is a sexual assault charge, the victims anonymity is supposed to be protected from the media. Due to a fair amount of pre-trial publicity, word of mouth , many people knew that Michaela and Jennifer Petit had been sexually assaulted within the home invasion/ murders, either from the news reported before the gag order was imposed, or possibly from reading excerpts from a book that komisarjevsky himself collaborated on - ie a self serving litany of lies trying to foist all blame for the murders on his accomplice and down playing his sexual assault on 11 year old Michaela, who his earlier sighting and attraction to was in fact at the nucleus of the entire set of crimes.
The book also violated the gag order, but likely Komisarjevsky cared more about trying to influence the public and therefore potential jury pool, than he cared about a contempt of court charge added to his plethora of capital murder charges.
As a practical necessity, there were evidenciary findings regarding these assaults that needed to be discussed within the framework of the criminal case against Hayes. Thus, it came out through certain scientific testimony that 11 year old Michaela appeared to have been sodomized before her murder, as the forensic evidence showed semen and saliva was found inside her rectum, as well as other correlating autopsy findings, that were not elaborated upon within that context of that particular testimony.
Donovan, who had been attending every day of the Hayes trial, practically scurried to contain damage control-after all, the whole world just found out that not only had this little girl been molested as we'd all suspected,and komisarjevsky himself admitted to within his statement to police and said book albeit denying penetration and doing his best to portray the assault as a minor accidental molestation, when as in fact evidence proved she was actually raped in the most horrific manner possible. A manner that incidentally speaks loudly of a sadistic control mongering pedophile sociopath.
Donovan literally gathered the press and the cameras around him in order to make a statement outside the courthouse stating that he wanted to assuage the Petit family immediately, and as he was not allowed to speak to them directly-this as there was actually a restraining order filed against him by the Petit and extended families, this due to an earlier also sleazy maneuver a year prior, where the lawyers tryed\the old soft pedal approach, trying to contact the victims family via a "restorative justice" service hired by his firm,although that was not made clear at all to the Petit Hawks or anyone else- This in hopes of everyone forgiving Joshua, and holding hands ,and you know, dropping that whole death penalty thing.
The family was understandably outraged and when told within the letter that they hoped to answer any questions that the Petit's might have about the crimes etc. Dr Petit quite plainly said " Id like to ask them why they raped and killed an 11 year old child and a 17 year old teenager who never hurt anyone in their lives and why they raped my wife Jennifer who had complied completely by giving them 15,000 from the bank where they'd driven her, promising they'd leave as long as they got the money and the police stayed away)
Mr. Petit also said that he would ask 'why their clients felt the need to tie his two girls to their beds splashed and poured gasoline all over them ( and bleach on Michaela to remove DNA evidence of Komisarjevsky's rape)
After pouring a path of gasoline that Komisarevsky had ordered ayes to go out and buy at 6 am that morning, the path they both created led from his en Petit's now dead body straight up the stairs into each of the girls beds, and their bodies as well as they lay knowing their fate struggling against bonds but helpless tied tightly to their beds with ropes.
The medical examiner later shared that the girls had been burnt while dying of smoke inhalation Hayley's ties had actually burned through and she tried to run in the acrid smoke filled upper floor managing to reach the top step where she collapsed the pain and the smoke being too much for her despite her athletic strength and what likely was an attempt to save her sister Michaela.
Both girls died a terrible death a death that I and many other people across the nation cannot get out of our minds putting ourselves in the Petit family's place and simply heart sick with the sadistic cruelty that Joshua komisarevsky wrought upon this family simply because he'd spotted 11 year old Michaela shopping with her mother that very day and decided he would follow the attractive child and mother home with plans of breaking in later that night raping Michaela and stealing whatever could be stolen. He simply used Steven Hayes as necessary brawn knowing there would be a father who would have to be over powered in order to take full control of the house.
That's not the kind of question I think the restorative justice folks had in mind. More about restorative justice later, its the latest tool amongst defense attorneys especially those with very very difficult cases such as Donovan is presented with.
Anyway, Donovan actually deliberately broke the gag order on the case, prohibiting he and all attorneys judges, defendants etc from discussing details of the case, and using the media as his medium, claimed to the cameras that despite what forensic evidence showed today in court, his client want the Petit family to know that Michaela was never sodomized, as "josh would never sodomize an 11 year old child"!
And, he continued, " he didn't want the Petit's living with this awful belief all the way until komisrajevsky's trial, which would likely be another year or so, if one were to go by the general pace of the Connecticut court system.
I was in court this painful day and it seemed as if the Petit, Hawke, Renn, and Chapman family members were finding out this very specific and disturbing information concerning the sexual assault of their beloved Michaela for the very first time - right along with the rest of us.
As such, it was a particularly upsetting and heart wrenching day; hence, it stood out in memory, as did the utterly inappropriate maneuver that Donovan pulled out of his bag of tricks next:
No sooner did The Petits and the other court goers have time to digest the awful revelation that this 11 year old terrified little girl spent the last minutes of her life being sodomized - then news of Attorney Donovan's statements to the "Petit family" via the press broke, and clips of it were everywhere - which is of course was exactly what he wanted.
When the press asked him well how do you explain what was found in the autopsy ie re his clients semen in Michaela's anal area, Donovan became a bit uncomfortable, stammering a bit and said I cannot elaborate on that right now but we will.
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He should have said "anyone that read " the book"( ie the "book" that Komisarjevsky in effect ghost wrote to author Brian McDonald while he was in prison awaiting his trial had hm claiming among other things that " his demons got the better of him and he ejaculated on this Michaela -- this Was so much less awful/evil than a full fledged penetration after all.} Sarcasm for those who were unsure.
Anyone close to the case knew/guessed that the girls had experienced very unpleasant things; we'd heard about pornographic cell phone photos taken from komisarjevsky's phone, he'd even discussed the photos in the book" a book that turned out to be full of self serving lies designed to humanizer himself and cast nearly all of the culpability for the crimes upon his accomplice Steven Hayes!
Naturally.
In the end the poorly written and sloppily edited book based entirely on komisarevskys claims rather than factual evidence, became a terrible re-traumatization to the community, to the families, as well as people from all over the state and well beyond.
These crimes had gripped the hearts and souls of people in other countries so horrific and random they touched the deepest part of us - innocent good people there home their lives randomly invaded offered and destroyed all because of evil sexually motivated crimes greed and what I personally believe was a hatred or jealousy of what they viewed as the haves and have not's ie classicism. The irony was that the Petit family was as down to earth as imaginable simple living relatively low key lives with charitable and community involvement at the core of their daily lives.
But to Hayes, a career criminal just months out of prison living in a run down condominium with his mother and two adult brothersin Winsted and Komisarjevsky who despite living in Cheshire for most of his life had always felt different from the other Cheshire families.His family stood out among the expensive homes with perfectly tended lawns it was a broken down farm house poorly maintained, his father an electrician often had trouble finding work and both of his parents had an a bizarre attachment to a local church that was evangelical and komisarjevsky became home schooled at his parents discretion when he began to get in trouble in the local public school.
He began robbing houses in his neighborhood and once he began he wouldn't stop.
In court we'd heard testimony from Hayes who having openly admitted to raping Jennifer Petit, had no reason whatsoever to lie about what his accomplice did or did not do with Michaela or Hayley Petit.
In court we'd learned from prison guard testimony, that Hayes confided to a cellmate that Komisarjevsky had sodomized Michaela and that if police were to take DNA samples from Komisarjevsky before he had a chance to shower, that they'd find traces of Michaela's DNA on his penis. This was spoken by Hayes within 24 hours of his original lock-up.
Yet still years later, finding out through irrefutable forensic evidence that Michaela indeed had been fully sexually assaulted penetrated sodomized, well it pained anyone who imagined the girls terror and it was obviously very damning stuff..
Of course in the "book" that komisrajevsky agreed to help write in 2009, he tried to nip this damning evidence in the bud by claiming that a he took nude and pornographic cellphone pics of Michaela only in an attempt to "blackmail Dr Petit" (how ridiculous is this)? and then,oops, he inadvertently saw how surprisingly developed she was for an 11 year old, and lust got the better of him and he simply masturbated in front of her as she turned away and looked at the wall" Classic rationalization, deceit and manipulation again-hallmarks of the sociopath. Giving any of this information in the book had a very specific motivation; it was all a set up for the discovery of any semen that would surely be discovered in the girl, despite his making her to take a shower and change into another outfit (he'd been making her wear different schoolgirl type outfits for his various /half nude cellphone pics) right after the molestations and rape.
Komisarjevsky even had an excuse ready made for the shower, which Hayes had told police about as well as cell phone photos showed, it was obviously an attempt to get rid of as much DNA as possible that might remain in or on her, despite knowing the men would be burning down the house and the girls after pouring gasoline on them in order to better insure destruction of that DNA.
According to Hayes, he said that komisarjevsky claimed that "fire destroys everything, even DNA."
And since komisarjevsky was the first and most active sexual assailant, as proven by his cellphone photos and time stamps, we have every reason to believe that it was he, not Hayes who came up with the idea of burning down the Petit home,with the Petit family tied up in it, in one fell swoop- getting rid of the DNA, Hayes pesky fingerprints, and witnesses-because by now he'd had lengthy conversations with Mrs Petit by his own admission, protracted ones,,thus even if he kept his mask on, it would be very easy to pull him from a book of mugshots, and we know that he would be on top on the Cheshire Police suspect list with his history, if this had merely ended as a home invasion, sexual assault and aggravated assault on Dr Petit via the Bat at the outset of the crimes. No, komisarjevsky set the tone for these crimes right from the start, he made them happen.
In fact he had a history of setting fires; at 15 he set an abandoned gas station on fire, as well committing an elaborate amount of home invasions, although they incorrectly termed house robberies back then,
But in almost every case ( and there were over 27 in the last batch alone that police knew of) the occupants of the house, were home, sleeping usually, with komisarjevsaky relishing the fact that he could get in and prowl about undetected. He brought night vision goggles and stole Trophies-sometimes panties from the women that lived in the homes, sometimes photographs, always with attractive women in them.
It gave him a "high" he told Friends, galpals and even the police.. This was a FLASHING neon warning sign, and although a judge caught the scent of how dangerous this made him, his intentions to put komisrajevsky away for 9 plus years and 6 of special parole never became a reality, supposedly due to interdepartmental lack of communication re criminal records.
He was given early release parole after serving one plus actual years in prison in solitary confinement-as he was so intimidated by the other inmates. The rest of his time he spent in a halfway house until his release with an ankle tracking device which had just been removed by the doc the weekend that he broken the Petit's home after spotting Michale and her mom and following them home.
His explanation for Michaela's shower trumped all; he had the audacity to tell author Brian MacDonald, as he'd also wrote in his "journals" journals which are linked in a prior post here, were to be used for the book, He writes; " I even felt like such an a-- hole, I even let her shower so she could get herself clean and get me off of her".
I have noted this time and again with classic sociopaths;. Komisarjevsky takes something that he did to cover a sadistic act, something he knows others are already aware of; (there are cellphone photo's there is testimony from Hayes, and forensic evidence that the girls hair was wet or just shampooed-IE Hayes had noticed this right away upon returning back to the house with Mrs Petit from the bank.) He stated that komisarjevsky told him he made the little girl shower, to better ensure he would not be caught for raping or killing her, which he knew he was going to do, as it was 9; 55 or so and he'd sent Hayes out to purchase large quantities of gas at 6;40 , talking Hayes back to the house on the cell phone when Hayes got lost coming home from a far away gas station, purposely chosen for its geographic distance from the Cheshire home IE komisarjevsky anticipated the police would be looking at gas station tapes once the arson/murder was discovered.
This was a guy thinking ahead. And yet here he is with months in prison to come up with plausible alter-scenarios that could explain away these most damning pieces of evidence and facts. In every instance he covers his own ass, never mind Hayes. I believe he'd fully intended on killing Hayes- he admitted this plan in the book, but of course for different reasons, once again:
Not the noble sounding version, that he was angry that Hayes screwed up by leaving his fingerprints all over the house, after taking off his gloves when komisarjevsky ever the professional had instructed him not to--- also he'd alluded to the fact that because Hayes supposedly lost it and strangled Mrs Petite, they now had to kill everyone. This was inferred rather than said specifically, but its just semantics; This guy is a consummate liar and manipulator and as one can see by the plethora of motions filed today, a week prior to the scheduled onset of jury selection for his trial, he is going to be a far more cunning sleazy opportunistic and cowardly defendant than his accomplice was.
Here is a break down of some of the motions filed today by komisarjevsky's lawyers. I'e read the motions but I'd like a little time to break them down for y'all , I'll hit upon a few and tackle the rest in the days to come. My belief is that most of them are going to be tossed as they are baseless and even frivolous and many insulting.
One or two might be given some credence, such as the tweeting issue and they' ll at least have to consider a change of venue. but as I said, change of venues are very rare,hard to obtain, and this case is one that is known nationwide, thus the concept of placing the trial in Stamford because it is farther away from New Haven, which is already far enough away from Cheshire in the first place, is all moot.
It will be impossible to find 18 people that don't know a thing about these crimes, thus just like Hayes trial, the instructions to the jury re ignoring what they have read or heard, will have to suffice; This guy writes a book about the crimes he committed and then he asks for a change in venue to escape the fact that too many people know about the crimes?!
This would be hilarious if the subject matter were not so serious.
.For one the defense asked for all capital charges to be dropped against komisrajevsky.
Yes you read it correctly.
The motion rationale is that since Steven Hayes was found guilty of murdering Jennifer Petit and at some point purportedly admitted to pouring gasoline on the stairs, as well the prosecutor in the case accused him of lighting the fire,because he was the last one to run out of the house according to police testimony, Thus they claim that say their client can't be guilty of the arson deaths of the two Petit children
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Remember Hayes has openly admitted to murdering Jennifer Petit and no one contested that, so in effect, never mind the rules of felony murder, by god that charge of murder should also be trashed.
And so on and so forth.
Then they asked for a new Judge,
They want Judge Blue out and they claim he has shown inordinate preferential treatment and consideration to the state IE prosecution in the Hayes trial which i personally was
appalled that their attorneys were even allowed to attend and study with pen in hand and probably Mini recorder device on. Unfair advantage.
These attorneys hemmed and hawed at the prospect of one trial let alone two simultaneous trials, and thus when they were relented to because the family was afraid of giving any reasonable basis for a mistrial, they decided to give up the simultaneous idea bite the bullet and wait out two very long painful trials for the very same crimes
In any event the idea was that Judge Blue was unfair to Hayes and not impartial and thus he should rec use himself was patently absurd. If anything I saw a udge that was trying too hard to appear not partial to the prosecution and in doing gave them and unfair advantage which was clea in many of his rulings and decisions.
oh yeah and there was something about him giving out cookies to members of the press and telling the jurors they could all hug eachother after a particularly upsetting day where they were asked to look at crime scene photos and autopsy photos.
Then there'was several objections to the seating arrangements-and this one is really a doozy.
and this comprised two of the total ten motions filed by the Defense.
I don't even want to begin to elaborate on it, the audacity of Komisarjevsky, who I know was involved with this request,as a typical sociopath and the obvious ringleader here the workings of his mind are becoming easier and easier to discern.
Suffice to say that this cretin is actually asking to be seated directly opposite his "accusers
IE William Petit and the extended Hawke Petit families" so that he may look his accusers eye to eye"
Right off the bat he is trying to take the upper hand. although he is the one in the chains, he will still be in control. Just as had the audacity to call Dr petit a coward and indeed blame him for allowing him to kill his family, along the same personality disorder vein he's starting off with an adversarial stance which he has actually carried from the start;shortly after his arrest when his lawyers sent an offer to Dr Petit via some Restorative justice representatives-who were in fact hired by komisrajevsky's attorneys to lure Dr Petit and his sister and his parents to meet with and discuss amiably the case and perhaps answer any questions they might have, that Joshua could help ease their minds about. It was a bad roll of the dice of behalf of Donovan once again showing his cluelessness in regards to the sensitivity training he clearly missed out on in law school when dealing with sole survivors of your clients would be famicide.
Needless to say this part of the motions request was not a traditional seating arrangement by a long shot and this they claim is the problem also with the seating for the prosecution who traditionally has always sat across from the jury-
Then Donovan and co make an elaborate theorem that whoever sits closest to the jury-or anyone for that matter according to their general theory, has the closeness advantage: something akin to I tend to identify most with whomever I am physically in closet proximity to, especially day after day in confined spaces such as courtrooms and trial situations. As such komisarjevskys layers claim that the state has always had an unfair advantage getting to sit closest to the jury and they would like to remove that advantage and in fact assume the advantage for themselves.
It also should be mentioned that buried within this motion there was a decidedly not so subtle challenge and thumbing of the nose ( an obscene gesture would actually be closer to what this resembled- this from komisarjevsky towards the man whose family he slaughtered and whom he almost killed in the process. This is the main reason it rankled me as it did.
I simply cannot believe that this twerp has the nerve and his attorneys comply and enable it, as if to say: " I'm calling you out, I'm not gonna hide or hang my head like Hayes, I have zero conscience.
He is making a statement within this motion and I believe that it is in fact very personal. Just as komisarjevskys attacks upon Dr Petit have been within his journals, his novel, technically written by Brian MacDonald but in fact spoon fed by komisrajevsky. More than once this cowardly little punk bragged that beat a man who lay sleeping on his sun porch couch, beat him almost to death with a bat," because he was a big guy..." His ex girlfriends said that during a phone conversation komisarjevsky made to her from jail shortly after the murders, his mood was inappropriately boisterous, proud, and he indeed bragged about his assault upon the slumbering Bill Petit, (this while he had the 230 lb Hayes 4 feet away to back him up.)
In fact we have heard a good deal of verbal assaults upon sole survivor Dr. Petit's character since this komisarjevsky's been locked up. He has such a driving need for attention that he could not be intelligent enough to remain mum until his trial was over.
As with all lies however, those lies caught up with Mr Komisrajevsky very swiftly; his claims were already beginning to unravel prior to the advent of Mr Hayes trial and from there it only got worse. Forensic evidence sealed the deal and the light was shined heavily upon this guys manipulation and mendacity.
The writer of the jailhouse book has since even stepped back and admitted that he'd been duped and added that joshua komisarjevsky is one of the most manipulative criminals he has interviewed.
The next motion may seem rather frivolous considering the gravity of what most of the other motions contained,but I think it is extremely disturbing as it really shows the utter lack of remorse and again the adversarial stance that this murderer and his minions have the audacity to pose against the sole survivor of a series of crimes which at the very least joshau komisarjevsky is responsible for putting into action, first by targeting Jen Petit and 11 year old Michaela at that Cheshire Stop and Shop, then following them home and stalking their house and then later bringing Hayes into the invasion rape plan because he needed some muscle to contain a house that likely had a male father husband within it.
But such is the mind of a psychopath. They are all very much the same.
There is a great essay entitled the"Banality of evil" In it one sees that these predators all follow a very predictable pattern of self absorbed, ego-driven, conscience-less, and almost always - parasitic existences, existences that suck the life out of everyone in the periphery of their lives.
Steven Hayes brother, Matthew Hayes, described in a letter to the court, his brothers life, even before he raped and murdered, as someone who refused to ever take accountability for his actions and inaction, and a man who was rife with a manipulative, deceptive personality throughout his entire adult life.
Hopefully, in the future we will be able to lock them up upon their very first infraction against another human being, and throw away the key. There is no treatment for the sociopath and they always escalate.
This motion was actually a motion to disallow the wearing of Pins and or other jewelry that were shown to support the Petit family Foundation, a local non profit formed in the wake of the murders by Bill Petit that gives money to protect victims of violence chronic illness and other endeavors. A large clutch of people attending the Hayes trial were donning such pins and bracelets that were also sold to support one of the Petit family Charity's. The Petit Hawke Chapman and Renn families all wore the pins as did many friends neighbors and supporters that managed to get into the court as seats were very much a commodity due to the hi profile nature of the case and the expected public interest in the outcome.
Which leads us to the next motion to prohibit all electronic updating by reporters such as tweeting and other such "new tech" immediate coverage of trial goings-ons. There was a great deal of information about how they perceived this negatively impacted Hayes in his trial and even affected komisarjevsky in Hayes trial and as such they don't want it in their trial.
Ironically, The very next motion had them asking for a recording device that would record every solitary word spoken within the courtroom during the trial, even the attorney judge sidebars, which once again, traditionally have been recorded verbatim by the court stenographer, whose job it is to write down pretty much everything that gets said within the proceedings. The defense was actually putting it out there that they intended in advance to use whatever was said or wasn't said within appeals which they were presumptively intending to file. In effect planning a strategy to claim that anything said, or done or not said or not done, might become appeal worthy, could be used more readily, especially if they can simply play it over and over again.
Also, it should be noted almost as an aside, that Jury selection for the State of Connecticut Vs Komisarjevsky has also been delayed for no apparent reason other than the usual signature Donovan stalling tactics. The Lawyers were supposed to start voire dire mid February, but I called this one months ago, guessing that it would be closer to end of April, knowing Donovan and his propensity for procrastination for procrastination sake.
Apparently,Judge Blue granted the delay, possibly already affected by the motion to replace Blue, citing accusations of partial treatment with obvious preferential treatment given the State; Now at the very least they've put Judge Blue on the defensive having to "prove that he's impartial. And you better believe that this is exactly the outcome that Donovan hoped for when he he had his minions write up this particular motion.
More later regarding descriptions of and the real motivations for the rest of these Motions. Until then, please feel free to read through them yourselves.
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| Hayely's Bedroom |
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| Michaela Petit A month before she was murdered |
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| Michaela bed after her body was removed |
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| Hayley and Michaela Summer that they were murdered |
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| Jennifer Petit and Daughter Michaela month before Murders |
I don't know where to begin.
All of these motions by the defense are all so painfully ludicrous, with the exception of the change of venue, which was to be expected - thats pretty much criminal law/capital crime 101. But changes of venue rarely ever get granted. Suffice to say, that a flurry of motions does not begin the describe what was filed today in New Haven Superior Court, as you can discern for yourselves from the links to the actual motions listed at the bottom of this post.
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The motions, most of which were either ridiculous or outright outrageous, were filed by none other than self admitted pedophile and rapist, Joshua Komisarjevsky, via his ethically defunct tax- paid mouthpiece, Jeremiah Donovan.
Donovan, a public defender whose name you might be familiar with, for recently being hauled before a Judge for a contempt hearing to determine whether he should be thus charged for of all things, violating a gag order that was placed upon the Petit murder cases several months after they occurred in July 2007. The contempt charge originated from a reprehensible stunt that Donovan pulled, calling an impromptu press conference on the courthouse steps of the Steven Hayes murder trial, his clients accomplice who was tried separately when it was clear they had adversarial defenses.
This mini press conference that attorney Donovan easily cultivated at a time when the courthouse was literally swarming with TV cameras and all kinds of media big-wigs, guaranteeing it's broadcast in the evening news.
This was clearly the motivation, despite Donovan's fluctuating claims regarding why he did such an unprofessional-- and lets face it-sleazy maneuver.
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Donovan decided that the Hayes trial media gathering would be a perfect opportunity for him to address some very damning testimony against his client Joshua komisarjevsky, that had just been revealed that very day in court. The highly disturbing evidence was revealed within the testimony of the lead pathologist who was being questioned for a long period of time regarding the autopsies of the victims, Jennifer Hayley and Michaela Petit.
The sensitive testimony involved forensic evidence found proving the sexual assault of a minor, Michaela Petit, which is one of the main reason that television cameras were not allowed inside of the courtroom.
Anytime there is a sexual assault charge, the victims anonymity is supposed to be protected from the media. Due to a fair amount of pre-trial publicity, word of mouth , many people knew that Michaela and Jennifer Petit had been sexually assaulted within the home invasion/ murders, either from the news reported before the gag order was imposed, or possibly from reading excerpts from a book that komisarjevsky himself collaborated on - ie a self serving litany of lies trying to foist all blame for the murders on his accomplice and down playing his sexual assault on 11 year old Michaela, who his earlier sighting and attraction to was in fact at the nucleus of the entire set of crimes.
The book also violated the gag order, but likely Komisarjevsky cared more about trying to influence the public and therefore potential jury pool, than he cared about a contempt of court charge added to his plethora of capital murder charges.
As a practical necessity, there were evidenciary findings regarding these assaults that needed to be discussed within the framework of the criminal case against Hayes. Thus, it came out through certain scientific testimony that 11 year old Michaela appeared to have been sodomized before her murder, as the forensic evidence showed semen and saliva was found inside her rectum, as well as other correlating autopsy findings, that were not elaborated upon within that context of that particular testimony.
Donovan, who had been attending every day of the Hayes trial, practically scurried to contain damage control-after all, the whole world just found out that not only had this little girl been molested as we'd all suspected,and komisarjevsky himself admitted to within his statement to police and said book albeit denying penetration and doing his best to portray the assault as a minor accidental molestation, when as in fact evidence proved she was actually raped in the most horrific manner possible. A manner that incidentally speaks loudly of a sadistic control mongering pedophile sociopath.
Donovan literally gathered the press and the cameras around him in order to make a statement outside the courthouse stating that he wanted to assuage the Petit family immediately, and as he was not allowed to speak to them directly-this as there was actually a restraining order filed against him by the Petit and extended families, this due to an earlier also sleazy maneuver a year prior, where the lawyers tryed\the old soft pedal approach, trying to contact the victims family via a "restorative justice" service hired by his firm,although that was not made clear at all to the Petit Hawks or anyone else- This in hopes of everyone forgiving Joshua, and holding hands ,and you know, dropping that whole death penalty thing.
The family was understandably outraged and when told within the letter that they hoped to answer any questions that the Petit's might have about the crimes etc. Dr Petit quite plainly said " Id like to ask them why they raped and killed an 11 year old child and a 17 year old teenager who never hurt anyone in their lives and why they raped my wife Jennifer who had complied completely by giving them 15,000 from the bank where they'd driven her, promising they'd leave as long as they got the money and the police stayed away)
Mr. Petit also said that he would ask 'why their clients felt the need to tie his two girls to their beds splashed and poured gasoline all over them ( and bleach on Michaela to remove DNA evidence of Komisarjevsky's rape)
After pouring a path of gasoline that Komisarevsky had ordered ayes to go out and buy at 6 am that morning, the path they both created led from his en Petit's now dead body straight up the stairs into each of the girls beds, and their bodies as well as they lay knowing their fate struggling against bonds but helpless tied tightly to their beds with ropes.
The medical examiner later shared that the girls had been burnt while dying of smoke inhalation Hayley's ties had actually burned through and she tried to run in the acrid smoke filled upper floor managing to reach the top step where she collapsed the pain and the smoke being too much for her despite her athletic strength and what likely was an attempt to save her sister Michaela.
Both girls died a terrible death a death that I and many other people across the nation cannot get out of our minds putting ourselves in the Petit family's place and simply heart sick with the sadistic cruelty that Joshua komisarevsky wrought upon this family simply because he'd spotted 11 year old Michaela shopping with her mother that very day and decided he would follow the attractive child and mother home with plans of breaking in later that night raping Michaela and stealing whatever could be stolen. He simply used Steven Hayes as necessary brawn knowing there would be a father who would have to be over powered in order to take full control of the house.
That's not the kind of question I think the restorative justice folks had in mind. More about restorative justice later, its the latest tool amongst defense attorneys especially those with very very difficult cases such as Donovan is presented with.
Anyway, Donovan actually deliberately broke the gag order on the case, prohibiting he and all attorneys judges, defendants etc from discussing details of the case, and using the media as his medium, claimed to the cameras that despite what forensic evidence showed today in court, his client want the Petit family to know that Michaela was never sodomized, as "josh would never sodomize an 11 year old child"!
And, he continued, " he didn't want the Petit's living with this awful belief all the way until komisrajevsky's trial, which would likely be another year or so, if one were to go by the general pace of the Connecticut court system.
I was in court this painful day and it seemed as if the Petit, Hawke, Renn, and Chapman family members were finding out this very specific and disturbing information concerning the sexual assault of their beloved Michaela for the very first time - right along with the rest of us.
As such, it was a particularly upsetting and heart wrenching day; hence, it stood out in memory, as did the utterly inappropriate maneuver that Donovan pulled out of his bag of tricks next:
No sooner did The Petits and the other court goers have time to digest the awful revelation that this 11 year old terrified little girl spent the last minutes of her life being sodomized - then news of Attorney Donovan's statements to the "Petit family" via the press broke, and clips of it were everywhere - which is of course was exactly what he wanted.
When the press asked him well how do you explain what was found in the autopsy ie re his clients semen in Michaela's anal area, Donovan became a bit uncomfortable, stammering a bit and said I cannot elaborate on that right now but we will.
.
He should have said "anyone that read " the book"( ie the "book" that Komisarjevsky in effect ghost wrote to author Brian McDonald while he was in prison awaiting his trial had hm claiming among other things that " his demons got the better of him and he ejaculated on this Michaela -- this Was so much less awful/evil than a full fledged penetration after all.} Sarcasm for those who were unsure.
Anyone close to the case knew/guessed that the girls had experienced very unpleasant things; we'd heard about pornographic cell phone photos taken from komisarjevsky's phone, he'd even discussed the photos in the book" a book that turned out to be full of self serving lies designed to humanizer himself and cast nearly all of the culpability for the crimes upon his accomplice Steven Hayes!
Naturally.
In the end the poorly written and sloppily edited book based entirely on komisarevskys claims rather than factual evidence, became a terrible re-traumatization to the community, to the families, as well as people from all over the state and well beyond.
These crimes had gripped the hearts and souls of people in other countries so horrific and random they touched the deepest part of us - innocent good people there home their lives randomly invaded offered and destroyed all because of evil sexually motivated crimes greed and what I personally believe was a hatred or jealousy of what they viewed as the haves and have not's ie classicism. The irony was that the Petit family was as down to earth as imaginable simple living relatively low key lives with charitable and community involvement at the core of their daily lives.
But to Hayes, a career criminal just months out of prison living in a run down condominium with his mother and two adult brothersin Winsted and Komisarjevsky who despite living in Cheshire for most of his life had always felt different from the other Cheshire families.His family stood out among the expensive homes with perfectly tended lawns it was a broken down farm house poorly maintained, his father an electrician often had trouble finding work and both of his parents had an a bizarre attachment to a local church that was evangelical and komisarjevsky became home schooled at his parents discretion when he began to get in trouble in the local public school.
He began robbing houses in his neighborhood and once he began he wouldn't stop.
In court we'd heard testimony from Hayes who having openly admitted to raping Jennifer Petit, had no reason whatsoever to lie about what his accomplice did or did not do with Michaela or Hayley Petit.
In court we'd learned from prison guard testimony, that Hayes confided to a cellmate that Komisarjevsky had sodomized Michaela and that if police were to take DNA samples from Komisarjevsky before he had a chance to shower, that they'd find traces of Michaela's DNA on his penis. This was spoken by Hayes within 24 hours of his original lock-up.
Yet still years later, finding out through irrefutable forensic evidence that Michaela indeed had been fully sexually assaulted penetrated sodomized, well it pained anyone who imagined the girls terror and it was obviously very damning stuff..
Of course in the "book" that komisrajevsky agreed to help write in 2009, he tried to nip this damning evidence in the bud by claiming that a he took nude and pornographic cellphone pics of Michaela only in an attempt to "blackmail Dr Petit" (how ridiculous is this)? and then,oops, he inadvertently saw how surprisingly developed she was for an 11 year old, and lust got the better of him and he simply masturbated in front of her as she turned away and looked at the wall" Classic rationalization, deceit and manipulation again-hallmarks of the sociopath. Giving any of this information in the book had a very specific motivation; it was all a set up for the discovery of any semen that would surely be discovered in the girl, despite his making her to take a shower and change into another outfit (he'd been making her wear different schoolgirl type outfits for his various /half nude cellphone pics) right after the molestations and rape.
Komisarjevsky even had an excuse ready made for the shower, which Hayes had told police about as well as cell phone photos showed, it was obviously an attempt to get rid of as much DNA as possible that might remain in or on her, despite knowing the men would be burning down the house and the girls after pouring gasoline on them in order to better insure destruction of that DNA.
According to Hayes, he said that komisarjevsky claimed that "fire destroys everything, even DNA."
And since komisarjevsky was the first and most active sexual assailant, as proven by his cellphone photos and time stamps, we have every reason to believe that it was he, not Hayes who came up with the idea of burning down the Petit home,with the Petit family tied up in it, in one fell swoop- getting rid of the DNA, Hayes pesky fingerprints, and witnesses-because by now he'd had lengthy conversations with Mrs Petit by his own admission, protracted ones,,thus even if he kept his mask on, it would be very easy to pull him from a book of mugshots, and we know that he would be on top on the Cheshire Police suspect list with his history, if this had merely ended as a home invasion, sexual assault and aggravated assault on Dr Petit via the Bat at the outset of the crimes. No, komisarjevsky set the tone for these crimes right from the start, he made them happen.
In fact he had a history of setting fires; at 15 he set an abandoned gas station on fire, as well committing an elaborate amount of home invasions, although they incorrectly termed house robberies back then,
But in almost every case ( and there were over 27 in the last batch alone that police knew of) the occupants of the house, were home, sleeping usually, with komisarjevsaky relishing the fact that he could get in and prowl about undetected. He brought night vision goggles and stole Trophies-sometimes panties from the women that lived in the homes, sometimes photographs, always with attractive women in them.
It gave him a "high" he told Friends, galpals and even the police.. This was a FLASHING neon warning sign, and although a judge caught the scent of how dangerous this made him, his intentions to put komisrajevsky away for 9 plus years and 6 of special parole never became a reality, supposedly due to interdepartmental lack of communication re criminal records.
He was given early release parole after serving one plus actual years in prison in solitary confinement-as he was so intimidated by the other inmates. The rest of his time he spent in a halfway house until his release with an ankle tracking device which had just been removed by the doc the weekend that he broken the Petit's home after spotting Michale and her mom and following them home.
His explanation for Michaela's shower trumped all; he had the audacity to tell author Brian MacDonald, as he'd also wrote in his "journals" journals which are linked in a prior post here, were to be used for the book, He writes; " I even felt like such an a-- hole, I even let her shower so she could get herself clean and get me off of her".
I have noted this time and again with classic sociopaths;. Komisarjevsky takes something that he did to cover a sadistic act, something he knows others are already aware of; (there are cellphone photo's there is testimony from Hayes, and forensic evidence that the girls hair was wet or just shampooed-IE Hayes had noticed this right away upon returning back to the house with Mrs Petit from the bank.) He stated that komisarjevsky told him he made the little girl shower, to better ensure he would not be caught for raping or killing her, which he knew he was going to do, as it was 9; 55 or so and he'd sent Hayes out to purchase large quantities of gas at 6;40 , talking Hayes back to the house on the cell phone when Hayes got lost coming home from a far away gas station, purposely chosen for its geographic distance from the Cheshire home IE komisarjevsky anticipated the police would be looking at gas station tapes once the arson/murder was discovered.
This was a guy thinking ahead. And yet here he is with months in prison to come up with plausible alter-scenarios that could explain away these most damning pieces of evidence and facts. In every instance he covers his own ass, never mind Hayes. I believe he'd fully intended on killing Hayes- he admitted this plan in the book, but of course for different reasons, once again:
Not the noble sounding version, that he was angry that Hayes screwed up by leaving his fingerprints all over the house, after taking off his gloves when komisarjevsky ever the professional had instructed him not to--- also he'd alluded to the fact that because Hayes supposedly lost it and strangled Mrs Petite, they now had to kill everyone. This was inferred rather than said specifically, but its just semantics; This guy is a consummate liar and manipulator and as one can see by the plethora of motions filed today, a week prior to the scheduled onset of jury selection for his trial, he is going to be a far more cunning sleazy opportunistic and cowardly defendant than his accomplice was.
Here is a break down of some of the motions filed today by komisarjevsky's lawyers. I'e read the motions but I'd like a little time to break them down for y'all , I'll hit upon a few and tackle the rest in the days to come. My belief is that most of them are going to be tossed as they are baseless and even frivolous and many insulting.
One or two might be given some credence, such as the tweeting issue and they' ll at least have to consider a change of venue. but as I said, change of venues are very rare,hard to obtain, and this case is one that is known nationwide, thus the concept of placing the trial in Stamford because it is farther away from New Haven, which is already far enough away from Cheshire in the first place, is all moot.
It will be impossible to find 18 people that don't know a thing about these crimes, thus just like Hayes trial, the instructions to the jury re ignoring what they have read or heard, will have to suffice; This guy writes a book about the crimes he committed and then he asks for a change in venue to escape the fact that too many people know about the crimes?!
This would be hilarious if the subject matter were not so serious.
.For one the defense asked for all capital charges to be dropped against komisrajevsky.
Yes you read it correctly.
The motion rationale is that since Steven Hayes was found guilty of murdering Jennifer Petit and at some point purportedly admitted to pouring gasoline on the stairs, as well the prosecutor in the case accused him of lighting the fire,because he was the last one to run out of the house according to police testimony, Thus they claim that say their client can't be guilty of the arson deaths of the two Petit children
.
Remember Hayes has openly admitted to murdering Jennifer Petit and no one contested that, so in effect, never mind the rules of felony murder, by god that charge of murder should also be trashed.
And so on and so forth.
Then they asked for a new Judge,
They want Judge Blue out and they claim he has shown inordinate preferential treatment and consideration to the state IE prosecution in the Hayes trial which i personally was
appalled that their attorneys were even allowed to attend and study with pen in hand and probably Mini recorder device on. Unfair advantage.
These attorneys hemmed and hawed at the prospect of one trial let alone two simultaneous trials, and thus when they were relented to because the family was afraid of giving any reasonable basis for a mistrial, they decided to give up the simultaneous idea bite the bullet and wait out two very long painful trials for the very same crimes
In any event the idea was that Judge Blue was unfair to Hayes and not impartial and thus he should rec use himself was patently absurd. If anything I saw a udge that was trying too hard to appear not partial to the prosecution and in doing gave them and unfair advantage which was clea in many of his rulings and decisions.
oh yeah and there was something about him giving out cookies to members of the press and telling the jurors they could all hug eachother after a particularly upsetting day where they were asked to look at crime scene photos and autopsy photos.
Then there'was several objections to the seating arrangements-and this one is really a doozy.
and this comprised two of the total ten motions filed by the Defense.
I don't even want to begin to elaborate on it, the audacity of Komisarjevsky, who I know was involved with this request,as a typical sociopath and the obvious ringleader here the workings of his mind are becoming easier and easier to discern.
Suffice to say that this cretin is actually asking to be seated directly opposite his "accusers
IE William Petit and the extended Hawke Petit families" so that he may look his accusers eye to eye"
Right off the bat he is trying to take the upper hand. although he is the one in the chains, he will still be in control. Just as had the audacity to call Dr petit a coward and indeed blame him for allowing him to kill his family, along the same personality disorder vein he's starting off with an adversarial stance which he has actually carried from the start;shortly after his arrest when his lawyers sent an offer to Dr Petit via some Restorative justice representatives-who were in fact hired by komisrajevsky's attorneys to lure Dr Petit and his sister and his parents to meet with and discuss amiably the case and perhaps answer any questions they might have, that Joshua could help ease their minds about. It was a bad roll of the dice of behalf of Donovan once again showing his cluelessness in regards to the sensitivity training he clearly missed out on in law school when dealing with sole survivors of your clients would be famicide.
Needless to say this part of the motions request was not a traditional seating arrangement by a long shot and this they claim is the problem also with the seating for the prosecution who traditionally has always sat across from the jury-
Then Donovan and co make an elaborate theorem that whoever sits closest to the jury-or anyone for that matter according to their general theory, has the closeness advantage: something akin to I tend to identify most with whomever I am physically in closet proximity to, especially day after day in confined spaces such as courtrooms and trial situations. As such komisarjevskys layers claim that the state has always had an unfair advantage getting to sit closest to the jury and they would like to remove that advantage and in fact assume the advantage for themselves.
It also should be mentioned that buried within this motion there was a decidedly not so subtle challenge and thumbing of the nose ( an obscene gesture would actually be closer to what this resembled- this from komisarjevsky towards the man whose family he slaughtered and whom he almost killed in the process. This is the main reason it rankled me as it did.
I simply cannot believe that this twerp has the nerve and his attorneys comply and enable it, as if to say: " I'm calling you out, I'm not gonna hide or hang my head like Hayes, I have zero conscience.
He is making a statement within this motion and I believe that it is in fact very personal. Just as komisarjevskys attacks upon Dr Petit have been within his journals, his novel, technically written by Brian MacDonald but in fact spoon fed by komisrajevsky. More than once this cowardly little punk bragged that beat a man who lay sleeping on his sun porch couch, beat him almost to death with a bat," because he was a big guy..." His ex girlfriends said that during a phone conversation komisarjevsky made to her from jail shortly after the murders, his mood was inappropriately boisterous, proud, and he indeed bragged about his assault upon the slumbering Bill Petit, (this while he had the 230 lb Hayes 4 feet away to back him up.)
In fact we have heard a good deal of verbal assaults upon sole survivor Dr. Petit's character since this komisarjevsky's been locked up. He has such a driving need for attention that he could not be intelligent enough to remain mum until his trial was over.
As with all lies however, those lies caught up with Mr Komisrajevsky very swiftly; his claims were already beginning to unravel prior to the advent of Mr Hayes trial and from there it only got worse. Forensic evidence sealed the deal and the light was shined heavily upon this guys manipulation and mendacity.
The writer of the jailhouse book has since even stepped back and admitted that he'd been duped and added that joshua komisarjevsky is one of the most manipulative criminals he has interviewed.
The next motion may seem rather frivolous considering the gravity of what most of the other motions contained,but I think it is extremely disturbing as it really shows the utter lack of remorse and again the adversarial stance that this murderer and his minions have the audacity to pose against the sole survivor of a series of crimes which at the very least joshau komisarjevsky is responsible for putting into action, first by targeting Jen Petit and 11 year old Michaela at that Cheshire Stop and Shop, then following them home and stalking their house and then later bringing Hayes into the invasion rape plan because he needed some muscle to contain a house that likely had a male father husband within it.
But such is the mind of a psychopath. They are all very much the same.
There is a great essay entitled the"Banality of evil" In it one sees that these predators all follow a very predictable pattern of self absorbed, ego-driven, conscience-less, and almost always - parasitic existences, existences that suck the life out of everyone in the periphery of their lives.
Steven Hayes brother, Matthew Hayes, described in a letter to the court, his brothers life, even before he raped and murdered, as someone who refused to ever take accountability for his actions and inaction, and a man who was rife with a manipulative, deceptive personality throughout his entire adult life.
Hopefully, in the future we will be able to lock them up upon their very first infraction against another human being, and throw away the key. There is no treatment for the sociopath and they always escalate.
This motion was actually a motion to disallow the wearing of Pins and or other jewelry that were shown to support the Petit family Foundation, a local non profit formed in the wake of the murders by Bill Petit that gives money to protect victims of violence chronic illness and other endeavors. A large clutch of people attending the Hayes trial were donning such pins and bracelets that were also sold to support one of the Petit family Charity's. The Petit Hawke Chapman and Renn families all wore the pins as did many friends neighbors and supporters that managed to get into the court as seats were very much a commodity due to the hi profile nature of the case and the expected public interest in the outcome.
Which leads us to the next motion to prohibit all electronic updating by reporters such as tweeting and other such "new tech" immediate coverage of trial goings-ons. There was a great deal of information about how they perceived this negatively impacted Hayes in his trial and even affected komisarjevsky in Hayes trial and as such they don't want it in their trial.
Ironically, The very next motion had them asking for a recording device that would record every solitary word spoken within the courtroom during the trial, even the attorney judge sidebars, which once again, traditionally have been recorded verbatim by the court stenographer, whose job it is to write down pretty much everything that gets said within the proceedings. The defense was actually putting it out there that they intended in advance to use whatever was said or wasn't said within appeals which they were presumptively intending to file. In effect planning a strategy to claim that anything said, or done or not said or not done, might become appeal worthy, could be used more readily, especially if they can simply play it over and over again.
Also, it should be noted almost as an aside, that Jury selection for the State of Connecticut Vs Komisarjevsky has also been delayed for no apparent reason other than the usual signature Donovan stalling tactics. The Lawyers were supposed to start voire dire mid February, but I called this one months ago, guessing that it would be closer to end of April, knowing Donovan and his propensity for procrastination for procrastination sake.
Apparently,Judge Blue granted the delay, possibly already affected by the motion to replace Blue, citing accusations of partial treatment with obvious preferential treatment given the State; Now at the very least they've put Judge Blue on the defensive having to "prove that he's impartial. And you better believe that this is exactly the outcome that Donovan hoped for when he he had his minions write up this particular motion.
More later regarding descriptions of and the real motivations for the rest of these Motions. Until then, please feel free to read through them yourselves.
motion for alternate seating
motion for limited seating
motion for change of venue
motion to preclude
motion to dismiss capital charges
MOTION TO DISQUALIFY
MOTION RE VENIRE PERSON
motion for sequestration
motion for recorded proceedings
Motion for reconsideration scheduling
Motion re electronic devices
motion for limited seating
motion for change of venue
motion to preclude
motion to dismiss capital charges
MOTION TO DISQUALIFY
MOTION RE VENIRE PERSON
motion for sequestration
motion for recorded proceedings
Motion for reconsideration scheduling
Motion re electronic devices
